Emmett McLoughlin wrote People's Padre: An Autobiography, based on
his experiences as a Roman Catholic priest advocating for the health of people in
Arizona. The Beacon Press in Boston, Massachusetts, published
the autobiography in 1954. McLoughlin was a Franciscan Order Roman
Catholic priest who advocated for public housing and healthcare for the
poor and for minority groups in Phoenix, Arizona, during the mid twentieth
century. The autobiography recounts McLoughlin's efforts in founding
several community initiatives throughout Phoenix, including the St.
Monica's Community Center, later renamed St. Pius X Catholic Church, the
Phoenix housing projects, and St. Monica's Hospital, later renamed
Phoenix Memorial Hospital. McLoughlin's autobiography discusses
his advocacy for people to have greater access to maternity and prenatal
healthcare, to testing and treatment for sexually transmitted
infections, and to birth control[3] in the Phoenix area.

The People's Padre
is an autobiographical account of McLoughlin's life up until the 1950s.
The book has eight chapters following the chronology of his life: "A
Priest Forever," "Unto the Least of These," "A Corrupt Tree," "The Hall
of Judgement," "Founded Upon a Rock," "A New Contract," "Speaking the
Truth in Love," and "Upon the Altar of God."

In the first chapter titled
"A Priest Forever," McLoughlin recounts his family background,
childhood, and initiation into the Catholic priesthood. McLoughlin was
born on 3 February 1907, in Sacramento, California, as John Patrick
McLoughlin. The eldest of four, McLoughlin was born to immigrant parents
who came to the US from Ireland during the Irish potato famine of 1846.
The family lived in Sacramento, California, where there was a prominent
Irish Catholic community.

McLoughlin was raised in the Roman Catholic
Church and attended St. Francis Elementary School, a parochial school in
Sacramento, California. There, he attended daily mass, religious
classes, and maintained constant contact with the priests and nuns of
the Church. In 1922, McLoughlin attended St. Anthony's Seminary at the
Order of Santa Barbara in Santa Barbara, California, a twelve-year
training program for priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church[4]. He spent
the first six years in junior seminary, where he completed four years of
high school work and two years of college work. Starting in 1928, he
spent six years in the senior seminary at the Santa Barbara Mission in
Santa Barbara, undergoing an indoctrination process. McLoughlin studied
Catholic philosophy and theology, and he accepted the doctrines of the
church.

The Franciscan Order of the Roman Catholic Church[4] ordained
McLoughlin to the priesthood in June of 1933. McLoughlin took vows of
poverty, chastity, and obedience. McLoughlin says that the vow of
obedience would become the most important to the Church and his most
difficult to uphold. During indoctrination into the Franciscan Order,
member names are changed to symbolize the start of a new spiritual life.
As part of his indoctrination, McLoughlin changed his name from John
Patrick to Emmett, in memory of an Irish saint.

In the second chapter of
McLoughlin's autobiography, "Unto the Least of These," McLoughlin
describes his placement in Arizona and his involvement in establishing
clinics for venereal infections treatment and prenatal care. In June of
1934, a provincial council of the Franciscan Order that operated in
California, Arizona, Utah, Oregon, and Washington, sent McLoughlin to
St. Mary's Church in Phoenix, Arizona. McLoughlin describes being
shocked at the decision. He had seldom heard of Arizona and questioned
if people lived there. The council told him that they assigned
him there as punishment for his stubbornness. The council hoped the heat
and hard work required in Arizona would change McLoughlin's personality.

McLoughlin arrived at St. Mary's Church in Phoenix on 30 June 1934. The
Franciscan Order of the Roman Catholic Church[4] staffed St. Mary's Church,
and primarily served South Phoenix, where African American and Mexican
migrants lived along with poor whites. McLoughlin recounts seeing
Phoenix as a wonderful place to be a new priest, describing it as
rampant with sin, corruption, and souls needing salvation. McLoughlin
reports that he saw his assignment as both an opportunity and a
challenge.

As a new priest, and the youngest at St. Mary's Church
parish, McLoughlin was assigned the tasks that the older priests did not
want. He became the chaplain of St. Joseph's Hospital, later renamed
Dignity Health St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, of the Arizona
State Hospital for the Insane, of the county poor farm, and of all the
nursing homes in Phoenix. His duties as chaplain were to give the dying
their last rites, which were prayers meant to prepare the souls of the
dying for death. According to McLoughlin, acting as chaplain spurred his
interest in the health of Phoenix citizens.

McLoughlin continues the
second chapter by describing the city of Phoenix and the health issues
that its residents faced. McLoughlin describes Phoenix in the 1930s as a
sprawling, densely populated town that relied on cattle and cotton for its
economy. However, in the southwest region of Phoenix, which was near the
city dump, dwellings were mostly shacks without electricity or plumbing.
Residents often built their dwellings with collected tin cans, cardboard
boxes, and wooden crates. According to McLoughlin, that area of Phoenix
was one of the reasons Arizona had the highest infant and maternal
mortality rate in the nation. McLoughlin remembers himself as eager to
work in the area, describing what he calls as a rampant cesspool of
poverty, disease, and venereal disease as an opportunity.

To help the
southwest Phoenix slum community, McLoughlin writes that he entered a
subscription contest for a local Catholic magazine and won a 600 dollar prize.
With the prize money, McLoughlin purchased an old grocery store, which
he renovated into a church and social hall for African Americans who
were not allowed to enter other Catholic churches. He named the facility
St. Monica's Community Center. McLoughlin says that the social hall reduced juvenile delinquency by providing
youth with alternative safe activities, such as dancing. McLoughlin
acknowledges that the center did not address the many women and children
in the community that had severe health problems resulting from lack of
maternity care.

McLoughlin explains that during the 1930s, the state of
Arizona had no prenatal clinic. McLoughlin sought to create a clinic to
provide healthcare for pregnant women. The owner of a building adjoining
the St. Monica's Community Center was a Roman Catholic who had recently
lost his young daughter. After hearing McLoughlin's plan to open a
maternity clinic, the owner gave McLoughlin the property. The building
was then remodeled into what McLoughlin describes as the first maternity
clinic in Arizona. Staffed by registered nurses and licensed doctors,
the clinic offered free home deliveries to all women in the
neighborhood. Doctors delivered infants in shacks, tents, under bridges,
and often worked without running water, electricity, or sterile
equipment.

Despite the clinic's efforts to assist women with labor and
delivery, McLoughlin claims that venereal diseases, or sexually
transmitted infections, affected many in the community. Pregnant women
passed sexually transmitted diseases to their infants during pregnancy[5]
and delivery, which often resulted in birth defects[6] and health issues in
those infants. To help treat and prevent sexually transmitted
infections, McLoughlin recruited the help of two local physicians: Leo
Tuveson and Sebastian Caniglia. The physicians offered their services to
the southwest Phoenix neighborhood. Additionally, the Arizona State
Health Department, headquartered in Phoenix, offered to run the
necessary laboratory tests and provide treatments to Phoenix patients
testing positive for a sexually transmitted infections. With the assistance
of physicians and the Arizona Health Department, the clinic tested for
and treated sexually transmitted infections in the southwest Phoenix
community.

In Chapter two, McLoughlin recounts that the Catholic Church
responded negatively to the new clinic offering venereal disease
testing and treatment. According to McLoughlin, his fellow priests were
angry, believing that venereal infections were God's punishment for sexual
promiscuity. McLoughlin notes that the Catholic Church said that
providing a cure for venereal infections interfered with God's will.
McLoughlin ignored the protests of the Church and continued providing
care for the community.

McLoughlin says that as he became better
known in the community, he began receiving property bequests in wills.
With new property, he established a playground with floodlights, the
only one that existed in the area. At the playground, community
members organized intramural softball teams, for which all players were
African Americans. During a time of severe racial segregation,
McLoughlin championed all races. By the late 1930s, the St. Monica's
Community Center was referred to by locals as the
Father McLoughlin Mission.

Though McLoughlin provided some healthcare
and community services to those in southwest Phoenix, the community
lacked discounted government funded apartments for poor low-income
families. In 1937, US Congress in Washington, D.C., passed the US Housing
Act, which provided federal funds for the eradication of slums. Two
years later, McLoughlin was appointed as the Chaplain of the Arizona
House of Representatives in Phoenix and lobbied for a bill to use those
federal funds for a Phoenix City housing project. After the bill passed,
the Phoenix City Council appointed McLoughlin as the chairman of the
housing projects.

In the third chapter, "A Corrupt Tree," McLoughlin
describes his increasing problems with the Catholic Church over its
positions, including its support for racial segregation. McLoughlin
details how his involvement in the Phoenix housing projects angered the
Roman Catholic clergy. According to McLoughlin, the Catholic Church
believed that poverty and deprivation instilled self-sacrifice and
holiness in those affected by it. Therefore, providing the poor with new
houses would give them luxury that would lead to sin. However,
McLoughlin disregarded the his Catholic Church superiors and
continued the housing project. The 2 million dollar project developed
three housing sites to house over six hundred families in Phoenix. The
projects opened in the mid 1940s, as the US entered World
War II.

McLoughlin describes that by the 1940s, he was unhappy in the
priesthood. During childhood, McLoughlin was taught that non-Catholics
were to be tolerated but not trusted. He reports that he became
increasingly frustrated with the Catholic Church's inconsistency and
believed the Church was failing to practice its own ideals.
Additionally, the Church continued to support racial segregation. When
St. Joseph's Hospital refused to admit an African American nursing
student, McLoughlin swore he would build his own hospital and nursing
school where all races would be accepted.

In chapter four, "The Hall of
Judgement," McLoughlin recounts his work establishing St. Monica's
Hospital in Phoenix, and his decision to leave the Catholic Church
priesthood. By the 1940s, Arizona had become a military hub. The US Air
Force had bases in Phoenix due to the warm, dry climate and cloudless
sky with good visibility. Military personnel along with engineers,
contractors, and their families moved into the city, overwhelming
community facilities and hospitals. The hospitals in the Phoenix area
were often full, frequently turning away minority groups
including African Americans, Mexicans, and poor whites.

In 1940, US
Congress passed a bill that provided states with federal
funding to help communities adjust to wartime populations. The Federal
Works Agency, headquartered in Washington, D.C., provided funds to build
facilities including hospitals. McLoughlin campaigned to receive those
funds to open an interracial hospital and nursing school in Phoenix. The
federal government accepted the proposition and appropriated money for
the construction of the hospital and school.

On 14 February 1944, St.
Monica's Hospital opened and on 1 October, the nursing school opened in
the hospital. The St. Monica's nursing school became the first
interracial nursing school in the Western US. Physicians were required
to treat all patients prior to asking for financial information.
McLoughlin was the superintendent of the hospital.

McLoughlin continues
by describing the importance of birth control[3] in the organizations he
helped lead. McLoughlin states that he believed in the necessity of
birth control[3] and instructed all the medical staff to give women
information on contraception[7]. However, McLoughlin's beliefs about birth
control opposed those of the Catholic Church. McLoughlin says that the
Catholic prohibition of birth control[3] ultimately exploited women.
According to McLoughlin, the lack of birth control[3] financially and
emotionally disrupted families with the births of unwanted and uncared
for children.

McLoughlin continues the fourth chapter recounting how he
left the Catholic Church. In 1947, the Provincial Council of the Roman
Catholic Church, headquartered in Santa Monica, California, required
McLoughlin to appear before it. McLoughlin met with the Council in
Santa Monica, where it said he was failing in his spiritual life. The council
claimed McLoughlin had become a worldly priest and was neglecting his
spiritual duties to his parishioners. The Council claimed his hospital
duties were responsible for that neglect and required McLoughlin to
relinquish his unspiritual work. McLoughlin told the Council that he would
leave the post when the hospital's finances improved and it could hire
a paid staff member for the position. However, McLoughlin remained as
superintendent of St. Monica's Hospital against the orders of his
superiors in the Catholic Church.

The fourth chapter of McLoughlin's
autobiography concludes with letters sent between McLoughlin and the
Provincial Council. On 18 September 1948, McLoughlin received a letter
from the Provincial Council stating that he must sever all connections
with St. Monica's Hospital and be reassigned from Phoenix. McLoughlin
did not sever his connections and expected to be excommunicated from the
Church. However, according to McLoughlin, two doctors at the hospital
persuaded him to take other actions. The doctors argued that McLoughlin
had to retain the respect of the public to maintain the hospital and
that respect would be better gained through purposely defying the
Church, rather than letting the Church cast him out as though he were
disobedient. On 1 December 1948, McLoughlin sent a letter to the
Provincial Council officially resigning from the Franciscan Order and
the priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church[4].

Chapter five begins with
several letters sent to McLoughlin, some in support of his decision to
leave the Church, and some in disappointment and anger. Along with the
letters, McLoughlin discusses his conflicting views on the Catholic
Church and his struggles to find his faith. The chapter ends with the
certificate of appreciation McLoughlin received in 1952 from the City of
Phoenix for his work in the housing projects.

Throughout chapter six, "A
New Contract," McLoughlin describes his life after the priesthood,
specifically his budding relationship with hospital worker Mary Davis.
After his resignation from the priesthood, McLoughlin began
attending the hospital's social events. According to McLoughlin, at a
picnic in South Mountain Park in Phoenix, he realized he was attracted to Davis, a two-time Episcopalian
divorcee. Davis worked at the hospital as a registered medical record
librarian, transcribing dictation from the physicians.
McLoughlin and Davis married on 13 August 1949. Included in chapter six
are more letters of correspondence from Catholics across the country
aghast at McLoughlin's marriage. The Church and his family condemned
McLoughlin.

In chapter seven, McLoughlin describes the Church's attempts
to dishonor him and force him from Phoenix. However, McLoughlin remained
in Phoenix and continued working at St. Monica's Hospital. In 1951, the
hospital name was changed to Memorial Hospital. McLoughlin describes how
the majority of hospitals across the US followed the Roman Catholic code
of hospital ethics, which regulated the ethics of hospitals based on
Catholic religious teachings. Additionally, McLoughlin recounts how in
772 hospitals, the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church[4] trumped the laws of
the states. In those hospitals, it was forbidden to discuss
contraception[7] or to provide therapeutic abortions, even in cases for which
pregnant women's lives were endangered. McLoughlin expresses his
disagreement with the Catholic code of hospital ethics and the authority
it has over many hospitals.

McLoughlin concludes his autobiography with
chapter eight, "Upon the Altar of God," in which he describes his
culminating feelings about religion. He states that while he rejected
the Catholic Church, he thought that there was some good within the
Church and its religion. However, McLoughlin relates that his
experiences in the priesthood were not unique. McLoughlin claims that
many priests would follow his lead and leave the priesthood. Finally,
McLoughlin concludes that though he rejected the Roman Catholic Church[4],
he did not reject God or religion in general.

After publication of his
autobiography, McLoughlin received both positive and negative feedback
due to the longstanding controversy between the Roman Catholic Church[4]
and those who supported reproductive rights[8]. The institutions McLoughlin
founded, including the Phoenix Memorial Hospital, the Phoenix housing
projects, and the St. Monica's Community Center, all persisted into the
twenty-first century.

Emmett McLoughlin wrote People's Padre: An Autobiography, based on his experiences as a Roman Catholic priest advocating for the health of people in Arizona. The Beacon Press in Boston, Massachusetts, published the autobiography in 1954. McLoughlin was a Franciscan Order Roman Catholic priest who advocated for public housing and healthcare for the poor and for minority groups in Phoenix, Arizona, during the mid twentieth century. The autobiography recounts McLoughlin's efforts in founding several community initiatives throughout Phoenix, including the St. Monica's Community Center, later renamed St. Pius X Catholic Church, the Phoenix housing projects, and St. Monica's Hospital, later renamed Phoenix Memorial Hospital. McLoughlin's autobiography discusses his advocacy for people to have greater access to maternity and prenatal healthcare, to testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, and to birth control in the Phoenix area.